How it started...all over again

My exposure to fountain pens started when I was in secondary school (high school). We were all required to own a fountain pen and had to practise cursive handwriting (of which I'm sure is no longer practised in schools nowdays) to improve our penmanship. Of course, that never guaranteed that we would develop beatiful penmanship but it did develop an inkling to fountain pens. Well, for me at least it did.

I started out with Hero brand fountain pen. Hero pens were made in China and they were quirky but hardy fountain pens. You could drop them and abuse them and they still worked though you had to twist the nibs back in place sometimes. They were affordable especially when all I had to buy them with then were my daily pocket money for school.

When I had a little more pocket money, I got interested in the Lamy Safari. They came in wonderful bright colours and I remember owning 3-4 pens back then. Ink colours were limited though and the only "different" colour I could get was turqouise. I loved the Lamys I had. But I was still very naive on how to care for fountain pens and I used to leave them inked for ages without even using or cleaning them. So it was not surprising that after a while, I found I could not write with them and threw them out to get a new one. Wasn't the smartest thing to do but hey, I was a kid back then. :)

In college, I avoided fountain pens and preferred ball point pens as they allowed for faster drying inks and were the cheaper alternative especially when your friends borrowed your pens for note taking during lectures. Basically, losing a ball point pen was less painful so they were my main staple.

The fountain pen slowly crawled its way back into my life when I started working. Even then, I limited my use of them to just signing important papers or documents and they looked good in my shirt pocket. I still preferred my ball point pens for my scribbling. Plus I didn't want them staining my working shirts if they ever did leak...

Many years later, one of my best friends, Rafil, brought over his collection of fountain pens to show my daughter and wife who showed a lot of interest in them. He allowed them to choose a few and keep for a period of time and play with the pens. He did offer me a few pens to play with but I was apprehensive in keeping someone's pens especially when the person is a collector of fountain pens.

But by and by, I rediscovered my interest in fountain pens through Rafil's collection of pens. I learned that there were other brands out there and not just Hero, Lamy, Cross, Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman and Mont Blanc. My curiousity was piqued...